Life Of a Freshman Piano Student at the Manhattan School of Music in New York

It is any musician's dream to study the arts, and music in particular, in New York due to its vibrant and international culture, but also the monumental presence of the Carnegie Hall, Metropolitan Opera and, undoubtedly, the prestigious Juilliard School. When I think of the piano faculty at the Juilliard School, the renowned pianist Jerome Lowenthal comes to mind!

I may have had the option to jump right in to share about my life as a freshman piano student at Manhattan School of Music, which is one of the top music conservatories in the United States and the world. You may consider it as a “predecessor” to the Juilliard School. However, it helps to understand a little bit about me and my preparation for the audition itself.

I think it was towards the end of my sophomore year or even early junior year in high school that I decided to pursue music as my career. Simultaneously, I was debating whether I wanted to audition for piano or violin, or both! After some research from my Mum’s side (thank you, Mum), she got in touch with the recording artist at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music to record my audition and burn it onto a CD. During the recording sessions, I found myself with sweaty palms under a spotlight in a relatively big hall with just a big Steinway grand piano to be placed in and just under the immense pressure to submit a “perfect” recording for the Manhattan School of Music. Truth be told, my parents actually advised me to study in North America for my undergraduate degree and, consequently, pursue my Master’s degree at the Manhattan School of Music for a few reasons, which I will not go into in detail today. But in order to make my parents proud and, most importantly, to prove myself, I strived for the highest during these sessions. 

I prayed hard for what it would look like the day I received my acceptance letter. At that point in time, this acceptance would be one of the biggest highlights in my eighteen years of life. However, soon after, I received a Merit Scholarship upon admission. I had mixed feelings. I replayed all the many scenarios that could happen during my four years of undergraduate study there. What my piano professor will be like, the academic classes I had to take, what my student dormitory will look like, and whether my roommate will also be a 1st-year undergraduate piano student like me. What I was most concerned about was whether I would fit in with all the musically talented students. 

My Mum accompanied me to New York. During the new student orientation, I quickly discovered that the students were friendly to talk to, and we all seemed “normal.” They were approachable, and the staff that I engaged with were welcoming. When I received my 1st-year timetable, I was more than ecstatic - I immediately knew that within a highly competitive music conservatory, I had to work even harder to make myself stand out. I had the opportunity to converse with a diverse group of first-year students that included domestic, international, and even graduates from the precollege faculty from the Manhattan School of Music itself! Just like any other international student, I was scrambling to find inexpensive textbooks for my academic classes. Luckily, I found a group of students who came from Singapore; I was lucky to have them guide me and purchase used textbooks from one of them. 

Graded classes include: aural skills; humanities; humanities lecture; medieval/renaissance (history); keyboard skills; theory; theory lecture; symphonic chorus; and my piano lesson itself. The only non-graded class was concert attendance, which was just a pass or fail basis. 

The person that I interacted with the most was my roommate, Yifei. She’s from Tianjin, China, and was one year and one day older than me. She influenced me in several ways because this was the first time I heard about the precollege faculty at the Beijing Conservatory of Music, one of the most competitive and highly recognized music conservatories in China (the school where pianists Lang Lang and Yuja Wang received their formal training). I even remember her telling me at some point that her mother accompanied her to Beijing to support her study there. 

This conversation with my roommate confirmed the fear I had from the start that I needed to work harder than most students here who have potentially spent most of their daily lives practicing piano since young. From my assumption, these students may not have even opened a math textbook for their entire lives, but this meant that their piano-playing (technique) was at a highly exceptional level. This, for sure, made my heart sink. 

Lectures were held at the Greenfield Hall, which could hold all students from first-year undergraduate (including jazz students). Although there were certain weeks where I didn’t feel as prepared as I expected to be, the class that I most looked forward to going to was my piano lesson. My professor was kind, encouraging, and motherly. I say she is motherly because not only did she care for my well-being, but she never compared her piano students; she is aware that each and every one of her students is different and that we all portray different strengths. Her studio was carpeted with two Steinway grand pianos. Along the wall on which her grand piano was placed hung all sorts of inspiring past concert posters, events, and other artists. I remember she would always wear her set of high heels with a dress that covered almost to her feet. Despite her petite size, she had  immense power towards her piano-playing. Her technique and expressiveness were truly remarkable. Once in a while, she would hold a studio recital in her studio, which we were all required to attend. All of us had to perform at some point (a bit like on a  rotational basis) in front of her other students: undergraduate, Masters, Professional Studies (PS) and even Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA). I remember being excited to perform for other students, but more so because I remember there were three senior students that I always looked forward to listening to: one studying PS and two Masters. Somehow, most of the students in our studio were girls, and if I’m not mistaken, were all from China. 

The other class that is worth mentioning - the second favorite class that I looked forward to - was history (i.e. Medieval/Renaissance). Many students describe this class as difficult and a lot of work (I’m sure the professor is also aware of this), but somehow, the class was just extremely engaging to me. Although history was a subject I enjoyed learning about since my younger days in school, I had never enjoyed learning history as much as I did in this class. There will even be live performances during the class! There is no doubt that there was a lot of reading, note-taking, and, unfortunately, memorization. 

Obviously, there were classes that I didn’t enjoy as much, but the overall experience was, I would say, rewarding (and full of surprises). Life at a music conservatory wasn’t just about perfecting our craft and attending academic classes, but it was also about watching concerts held by other students, faculty, and pre college students. I remember our choir rehearsals took place every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon in the Greenfield Hall. Sometimes, we would do sectionals (I was in soprano) and get quite “slow” in the sense that we spent quite a bit of time doing the same warmups over and over again, but when we all came together for the concert held at the Riverside Church right across the street, it was just all worth it. 

If I were to write in detail about my experiences throughout my four years of undergraduate study at the Manhattan School, this blog could easily be four times longer. I may come back and write about my experiences in another blog, but I hope that this blog gives you a taste of what it is like to be studying at a music conservatory. Despite the competitiveness that pushed me to constantly go beyond what is just expected, friends and laughter were still created.